Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter fifty-seven. house of winning

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            Following Eddie's near-miss, we're thrown into shocked silence for a moment. A co-leader of Sibuna just almost got himself cut in two, and I swear, that blade wasn't there the last time we were down here. If it was, wouldn't it have gone off then?

            KT glances over at me, her voice shaking as she inquires of me, "How'd you know?"

            I struggle for an answer, stammering as I'm unable to explain that I just had a feeling. They would take it as is, but this combined with the red eyes I'm pretty sure I saw? A feeling deserves more of an explanation, one I can't give them. But fortunately, Fabian takes over for me and says, "When you spend enough time in the tunnels, you get used to the sound of impending doom." Yeah. Yeah, that works.

            "Great," Patricia says flatly. "We're back here again: booby traps."

            Eddie throws his hand toward the lifting blade. "There's—there's got to be a way to shut it off."

            Fabian counters, "No. No, I'm pretty sure this is foolproof."

            "It can't be foolproof. I mean, it's a hundred years old. It can't be foolproof." Eddie grabs a stick from the other side of the room and carefully pushes it through the furnace, but the blade comes down again and easily slices it in two. I jump back, my eyes wide. "Yeah, it's foolproof."

            "Yeah," Fabian says plainly.

            "It's Frobisher, idiot," Patricia reminds Eddie. "He thinks of everything."

            I shake my head and remark, "I really hate that guy." At least I got to punch him for everything he did to us and everything he will do. Not that the satisfaction from the look on his face when I did that—he so wasn't expecting it—is helping at all with the dread piling up inside me.

            KT lets out a shaking sigh. "We're never getting into that room, are we?"

            "Certainly not tonight," Fabian answers. Good, he hasn't given up yet. We need his brains if we're gonna get past the guillotine. "Come on, let's go." But he grabs my arm and keeps me behind with him for a minute even when the others go ahead. "How'd you know? You grabbed him before we heard the blade."

            "I had a feeling," I tell him. He's probably the only one who would understand it without asking any questions about what I mean by it. Eddie might, but right now, Fabian's in a better position to help me figure out where these feelings are suddenly coming from. It's not like I haven't had them before, they've just been stronger as of late. Like something really, really bad is happening. "I just... I don't know, Fabian, I can't explain it."

            "The same feeling you got when Victor was acting strange the other day?"

            "Yeah. I don't know, do you think this could have something to do with, uh, me going over to the gatehouse?" I ask him, shuffling on my feet.